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Monday, 9 May 2011

Finishing what I started

I've been so neglectful of my blog just lately. There are 101 things I'd meant to blog, but somehow time passed and I hadn't got around to it. I don't like leaving things unfinished though; witness my recurring nightmare of being in the final year of my degree, a week before my final exams and realising I have neither chosen my special authors, nor read any of their novels. I can feel that deep dread in the pit of my stomach just thinking about it. I think the dream is born of an anxiety about not finishing things (as well as not starting things I said I'd do!). So in the spirit of starting and finishing, I'm planning to post each day this week just to tie up those loose ends, like the AOB section of an agenda.

First up is the 2010 zig-zag quilt piece-along I signed up to 16 months ago. I'd been inspired by Lina's gorgeous zig-zag quilt in sunny yellows. Evidently, I failed to sew a zig-zag quilt in 2010, but I had the perfect excuse to start one this Spring for a best friend's new baby girl. All I knew was that there must be lots of orange, as it's always been her favourite colour, and I thought I'd throw in some bright pinks for extra zing, though steering well-clear of the classic baby pastel pinks.

It was made with 5 fat quarters of fabric (all used, almost to the selvedge), a metre of fabric for the backing, and a few inches of solid quilting cotton for the doubled binding which I had leftover from a previous project. The whole quilt is playmat-sized, using a craft-sized pack of warm & natural wadding. All materials were ordered from the lovely Jo and Fran at Saints & Pinners (all the dolce fabrics are now in the sale).

I'm very happy with this one, and as ever, enjoyed handstitching the binding on to frame the finished quilt and seeing it become a thing rather than a pile of fabric squares. My friend's baby (who is totally gorgeous!) has already tried it out for size and had a lie down on it on a picnic-in-the-park meetup, and I hope it'll hold up to lots of use (the beauty of such a brightly patterned quilt is that you can throw pretty much anything at it!).

I love to quilt baby blankets and I've been looking around for months for something to replace my very,very old Singer sewing machine. The Quilt50 is top on my list. After reading your blog, I will definitely purchase it this week :)

The new upgraded model (the Toyota Quilt226) is not available here in Malaysia, but I think the Quilt50 basically has all the versatile features I need in a sewing machine...

Hi and thanks for stopping to leave a comment on my blog. I love hearing from everyone! I always try to respond to comments by email or visit your blog, but sometimes blogger doesn't provide me with these details, so you can always email me at angharadhandmade {@} gmail . com